Today it is in the mid 60s, sunny and there is a light breeze. Not a cloud in the sky. Just gorgeous.

And I have to be in the office.

I was on my way in when I decided to turn left instead of right on Jackson Road. Right takes me to the office, left to Ann Arbor Subaru. I figured, if they were open, I might be able to get my hands around the wheel of a WRX.

They weren't open. I turned around. I didn't want to. It was a beautiful day and for the past four months I have driven on straight, flat roads in the city and outlying suburbs.


'If I don't do this, I'm going to *think* about doing it all day long.'

So I turned around again, heading West away from Ann Arbor (and the office).

And I drove until I found roads with curves.

I had to drive for quite some time.

A side road off of 'Old US-12' called 'Dancer Road' begged to be checked out. It was gravel. No thanks.

I pulled into a town called Grass Lake. After taking a peek around, I stopped and bought the cheapest 93-octane I've seen in a few weeks - $1.83.9. I asked the lady behind the counter, 'is there a lake in Grass Lake?'

With a smile, she pointed me in the right direction. I drove the mile or so, parked the car, and ate my lunch in a park on Grass Lake.

A few minutes after sitting on the bench, a marina let loose some kind of growling, closed-cockpit racing boat on the lake. I grabbed my camera and took a couple shots of it just for grins.

After my lunch, I decided I ought to head back. Taking the freeway, I was in the office in less than 30 minutes.

Living in a pretty big town, driving on such horrible roads and never seeing any features to the terrain, I was convinced that leaving VT meant that I left any kind of interesting sunny-day driving behind me. Michigan proved me wrong today. I found rural towns, farms and people that reminded me of Wisconsin, where I grew up.

There is fun driving to be had out there. I found some today.

Thanks for reading. Now I have some catching up to do. :)

END OF LINE

Nick,

An excellent story. I could see the trees, the lake, the lady behind the counter. Thanks for sharing the experience. However, if you should ever find yourself in Grand Island, Nebraska -- don't ask to see the island. :D

Thanks for reading it, Randy. Natives of Michigan recount legends of scenic drives North of here. I was thinking of maybe organizing some sort of weekend trip for later this summer. SVX owners would be welcome to join me, but I would warn that this year's drive won't come with the first-hand knwledge of the route that my VT drive did. This one would, however, be considerably longer, taking a full two days or so. I just think it'd be fun to drive around the state for a weekend with some SVX-owner-friends. We could get some FRS radios and yell 'STOP!' whenever a wife sees an antique shop she wants to check out. :)

I think this would have to be smaller and less formal than my last meet. But then, if I lengthen the commitment to two full days, fewer people would probably show up anyway.

I actually have some acquaintences who vacation in Michigan each year. My question, of course, was "why?" They described some beautiful country, so, it must be there . . . somewhere.

As a child, I developed a theory. When on vacation, my sister and I would often count license plates. Inveriably, the winner was Michigan. Furthermore, the plates, for the most part, were on large RV's. From this, I deduced that noone actually "lived" in Michigan. The residents all simply bought Winnebegos and drove around on the interstates.:D

Nice Reading
 

Nick,
I didn't know you where a writer too. Nice piece. I think we need more 'driving' pieces like that one. I know it's not all technical like some would have it, but there's a place for that too.

Every morning I drive into the rising New England sun. Most are all pink and beautiful.

Flat land: I'm from Rochester NY. Not much for hills there either. Whenever I go home to visit, I enjoy the open relatively treeless view of the flat"er" lands, but I really don't want to live there anymore. NE has nice hills and wonderful views around them.

And SO much MORE SUN!! :cool:

Re: Nice Reading
 

Thanks for reading.

Until December, I also drove every day to and from work with mountains and gorgeous skies as the backdrop. I can appreciate the rural farm scenery Michigan has to offer because it's the sort of scenery I grew up with, but I miss Vermont (and the rest of New England) terribly.